Ofcom: 58% of UK Players Subscribe to a Games Service

Key insights

8 slides

Market Reach

A majority of UK adults and children play video games.

60% of UK adults and 91% of children aged three to 15 engage with video games.

Leading Services

PlayStation Plus leads paid-for games subscriptions in the UK.

PlayStation Plus had 3.2 million subscribers, followed by Xbox Game Pass with 2.6 million. Xbox Live Gold and Nintendo Switch Online also had significant subscriber bases.

Market Leader. PlayStation Plus was the leading paid-for subscription service in the UK with 3.2 million subscribers.

3.2 million

PlayStation Plus subscribers in the UK.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers: 2.6 million
Xbox Live Gold subscribers: 1.5 million

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Summary

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, provides a comprehensive overview of the domestic gaming landscape in its Online Nation 2022 report. The analysis focuses on consumer behavior, subscription trends, and platform engagement within the United Kingdom during the fourth quarter of 2021. The findings highlight a high level of market penetration, with 60% of UK adults and 91% of children aged three to 15 engaging with video games.

Subscription services have become a significant component of the industry, with 58% of UK players maintaining at least one games subscription as of late 2021. PlayStation Plus leads the market with 3.2 million subscribers, followed by Xbox Game Pass at 2.6 million, Xbox Live Gold at 1.5 million, and Nintendo Switch Online at 1.49 million. Additionally, cloud gaming services reached 2.1 million subscribers, a figure that rises to 2.9 million when including free-tier access to platforms like GeForce Now and Google Stadia. Despite the prevalence of these services, awareness of gaming offerings within broader video-on-demand platforms remains limited; for instance, only 54% of Netflix users were aware of the service's gaming features, with an adoption rate of just 8%.

Mobile remains the dominant gaming platform in the UK, utilized by 37% of players, followed by consoles at 30% and tablets at 19%. Weekly engagement averages seven hours and 33 minutes. While mobile titles like Candy Crush, Pokémon Go, and Roblox maintain high daily active user counts, virtual reality adoption remains low, with only 3% of adults participating in VR gaming. Among those who do, PlayStation VR holds the largest market share at 32%, surpassing Oculus.